Redeeming the Week in Pop Culture–4/3/15

Each week I hope to send out the latest version of “Redeeming the Week in Pop Culture,” with the intention of touching on a variety of the latest topics from the world of pop culture. But one man can only watch/read/listen to so much on his own, especially a husband and father who wants to spend time with his family, so please feel free to forward anything my way that you think may be worthy of attention. Because chances are, I may have missed it.

In the world of biblical movies/television, it has been a busy week. Beginning with last Sunday’s Killing Jesus, the movie adaptation of Bill O’Reilly’s best seller, the best thing I can say about this is now I can save the money I was going to spend out of curiosity for the book. This was not a story about the Son of God, but rather the son of Mary. Three things worth pointing out that sum up well my disappointments in the movie: 1) Jesus did not know who he was until John the Baptist told him. Huh? I guess O’Reilly skipped over Luke 2:49 when a twelve-year-old Jesus said, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” when his parents came looking for him frantically in the temple. No, Bill, Jesus wasn’t assigned this job as Messiah by John the Baptist; he volunteered for it. 2) O’Reilly’s story implies that no guards were wasted outside Jesus’ tomb, leaving room to infer that his body could’ve been stolen. Again, let’s go to the scriptures: Matthew 27:62-66 makes it quite clear that the tomb was guarded, and  Matthew 27 even shares how the guards started the false report that they had fallen asleep while at guard, since they couldn’t explain otherwise why the body was missing. 3) The final scene of the movie explains that the apostle Peter began his ministry of spreading Christianity, leading to a martyr’s death on a cross, after seeing a few fish miraculously jump into his net. While the miracle of the fish did happen, it was only due to the command of the risen Jesus, who Peter found standing on the shore that morning. Peter (and all the other disciples too) lived and died as they did, not because of a few fish, but because they knew they had seen with their own eyes the risen Jesus, eating and conversing with him for forty days in fact.

Wolverine will play the role of the apostle Paul. That’s all we need to know for now. I’ll take three tickets today, please. When Variety magazine reports in an article that a megastar such as Jackman will star in a “faith-based film” from Warner Bros., it’s a good day to be a fan of the Bible in pop culture. Support this, please. Whatever you think of producers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, no matter what the first preview looks like, support this movie. It’s quite simple: If it makes money, they’ll make more. If Christians pan it, they’ll make a sequel to Dogma.

And on Sunday at 9:00, we have the first episode of A.D. The Bible Continues, on NBC. If you’re the type who likes to keep one eye on the TV, and another eye on Twitter, follow me as I live-tweet during the hour (along with all the future episodes as well). Let’s see how the story of Acts is portrayed on the screen and talk about it together. You can find me at @GodFamilyNoles, using hashtags #ADtheSeries and #BibleInPopCulture. It should be a fun hour.

There were some exciting non-biblical movie stories to talk about quickly too, starting with my new favorite show The Returned. If you’re not watching this yet, go back and find it from the beginning. You’ve only missed 4-5 episodes so far. I don’t want to spoil anything for someone, so let me share some things broadly. In this last episode, there is a great conversation involving a returned and a pastor about Lazarus and if he would’ve rather stayed dead, that included the line “How do you organize a life with no death to define it?” And with another girl who has returned from the dead, she and her twin (but now older) sister are playing out the parts of the prodigal son and his jealous brother. Their storyline takes us past Jesus’ parable that ended with the homecoming and deals with the aftermath of the prodigal returning. I have great faith in this show from former LOST producer Carlton Cuse. Be sure to watch it with your “God goggles” on and let me know what else you see in it.

And it turns out that Phil Miller is not truly “the last man on earth.” A jovial man named Todd has found the crew living alone in Tucson, and it’s killing Phil. Todd doesn’t realize it, but he has become Phil’s enemy, so he also doesn’t realize his love and kindness toward Phil is “heaping burning coals on his head” just like the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:20. The full context of the verse says, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Todd is loving Phil in amazing ways despite how horrible Phil is being to him, and you can just see it destroying Phil inside. This undeserved love toward him is incomprehendable. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll even change him just as Jesus intended when he commanded his followers to love their enemies.

Kevin Harvey is the author of two books, his latest entitled All You Want to Know about the Bible in Pop Culture, which is now available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, and Sam’s Club.

Redeeming the Week in Pop Culture–3/27/15

Each week I hope to send out the latest version of “Redeeming the Week in Pop Culture,” with the intention of touching on a variety of the latest topics from the world of pop culture. But one man can only watch/read/listen to so much on his own, especially a husband and father who wants to spend time with his family, so please feel free to forward anything my way that you think may be worthy of attention. Because chances are, I may have missed it.

Bill O’Reilly’s bestselling book Killing Jesus hits the small screen this Sunday on the National Geographic channel. I have not read the book myself, but am interested in seeing how the movie is portrayed. From interviews I’ve heard by O’Reilly, it sounds as though he based his book purely on all of the indisputable facts about Jesus’ life and death. And by indisputable, I believe he refers to what scholars define as indisputable, not Christians. I can respect that. Certainly I think there are probably many uneducated skeptics out there who might be surprised with what is actually considered fact, not myth, about the life of Jesus. But something O’Reilly said this week really caught my attention (I’m paraphrasing here): “This story tells us all the reasons why Jesus was killed. All the conspiracies and plots and enemies against Jesus that led to them killing him.” I don’t know what O’Reilly’s spiritual beliefs concerning Jesus are, but if we stick with simply the idea that “he was killed,” we’re missing the true, beautiful story of the gospel. Jesus wasn’t simply killed; he came to earth so that he could give his life up for us. Nobody “killed” Jesus. He allowed his life to be taken.

Is there nothing we can depend on to last for a satisfyingly long time in Hollywood and other areas of pop culture today? In one week, we received news of Downton Abby coming to an end after its sixth season; One Direction member Zayn Malik is leaving the band, which led to tweens crying all over the world; director Sam Taylor-Johnson is leaving the 50 Shades of Grey franchise after just one film, reportedly due to disputes with the book author; and Kim Kardashian went back to brunette after only a few days of living life as a platinum blonde. With all this unsettling change, how are we supposed to find any kind of joy and refuge in the world today? I guess I could get a little preachy here if I wanted, but I can still remember hearing the news of the end of Seinfeld upon returning from my honeymoon in 1997. Dark day, I tell you. Dark day. But with God’s help, I persevered. Thirteen-year-old girls of the world, you will too. Zayn isn’t dead; he’s just trying to “find his music.”

March Madness began last week, bringing with it all the many matchups that are inevitably compared to “David versus Goliath.” This year, teams stepping into the role of David included Hampton, New Mexico St., Wofford, and Georgia St. Georgia St. actually pulled off the David over Goliath upset, beating Baylor with an unforgettable late comeback. But no matter how many commentators and analysts use the David and Goliath reference to describe the matchup, it’s just not a true comparison unless the Georgia St. players, after the game, went over and cut off the heads of all the Baylor players. I don’t think that happened. I believe I would’ve heard about it if it had. But, yes, it did happen in the true David versus Goliath story. Check it out in 1 Samuel 17 if you don’t believe me.

In the March 23 episode of Scorpion there were a number of things that caught my attention. I don’t know normally have my “God goggles” on while watching this lighthearted, fun Homeland Security show about super-geniuses, but maybe I’ll have to start doing so. In this most recent episode, we have one character (Happy) refusing to accept the love and protection being offered from Toby, whom she can’t comprehend why he loves her so much, not unlike any of us who have difficulty understanding how God could still love us as he does despite all of our resistance. Math genius Sylvester can no longer pull the crippled pilot behind him to safety, and the pilot tells him to leave him alone, that there is no way Sylvester can save both of them, so he needs to leave the pilot to die. But when Sylvester surprises the pilot with the strength to carry him on his shoulders, I was reminded instantly of Ephesians 3:30: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” And FBI agent Cabe Gallo refuses to give up the search for his team, despite all around him trying to convince him of the danger of staying near the forest fire. Gallo believes in his team and that they will make it back, just as the father of the prodigal son faithfully believed each day that his son would return home to him.

When stories like these pop up in movies and television shows, I don’t necessarily believe that the writers were intentionally trying to make comparisons to the gospel of Jesus, but as I continue to say over and over in recent conversations and interviews concerning my new book, I hold firm to my thesis that pop culture loves the Bible. Whether the writers know it or not, the stories of self-sacrifice, of finding strength they never knew existed, of incomprehendible love offered to someone undeserving, is what the gospel of Jesus is all about. These stories move us the way they do, because the One who has led the way in living out these stories for us intended them to not only move us but change us.

 

Kevin Harvey is the author of two books, his latest entitled All You Want to Know about the Bible in Pop Culture, which is now available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, and Sam’s Club.